Along the Carolinian coast, a battle raged beneath the black waters of the Atlantic. Night had turned to the ocean into a plain of perpetual darkness. A war between ancient oceanic demons silent to the world.
A beast from the southern seas had found itself pushed northwards more and more each season. Forced out by stronger rivals, human pollution and deeper evils of the Atlantean trenches.
The titan drifted along the Florida mangroves feeding on the few dolphins, sharks and sea cows it could find. Only once did it risk foraging on the shore, slacking its immense hunger on a cattle ranch.
A Kronotitanus. The evolutionary descendent of the Mosasaur or Kronosaurus. A warm-bloodied reptilian titan, now with webbed claws for hunting on land. As vicious a monster on land as it was at sea.
It followed the coastal currents, letting its mind rest. Floating half-unconscious by adjusting its hydrogen glands. An organic buoyancy tank, similar to that of Dragons for flight and fire. It breeched with a jet of water from its nose as it caught a fresh lung of air before cruising back into the depths.
Its bulk blocked out the beams of starlight from above. Its tail swaying slowly.
It didn’t notice the ribbon-like tentacles reaching from below. The long sucker-lined limbs of a truly enormous Kraken.
The cephalopod monster mistook the titan for a whale or a ship. What delights it could find within an oaken hull?
Its arms surrounded the sleepy monster. Each sucker lined with toothy barbs.
Its many arms snapped around its prey.
The Titan’s red eyes burst open. It roared as tentacles wrapped around his body, pinning its limbs. A jet of superheated water escaped from its mouth. A tentacle wrapped around its jaws, shutting its long snout.
The tentacles dug into the Titan’s fleshy underside, creating ribbons of black blood. The barbs scraped against the volcanic scales of its back.
The Kraken had realized its mistake. This was no defenceless whale. This was no sweet treat of sailors. It knew it had to drag down the creature and drown it. The jets along its mantle fired water, jerking the deadly embrace further into the black darkness.
The Titan wrestled in the abyss, trying to free itself, thrashing its tail. The Kraken continued to pull it further down. Pressure began to hammer the coastal predator. Its oxygen reserves depleting faster with each meter descended.
It flexed its diaphragm as decades of hunting experience had taught it. Its hydrogen glands expanded on what little remained in its stomach. The pair began to rise, helped by its thrashing tail.
The Kraken began to constrict. A limb chocking the monster.
The Titan’s arm slipped from the tightening embrace. A webbed claw cut through the water. Slashes appeared on the Kraken’s fibrous black mantle. A plum of ichor filled the water. Its eyes, the biggest in the world, flashed with fear. It struggled to chock the life from its rival.
With its freed limb, the Titan pawed at its snout, slashing through the tentacle. The Kraken’s eyes snapped wide.
The Kraken drove its canoe-sized beak into the titan’s side. A cloud of blood swirled around them. Jaws free, the Titan let out a silent roar. Water began to fill its lungs. It would drown and fall into the unending abyss of the Atlantic
It dug its claws into the fleshy mantle of the Kraken and bent it towards its jaws. Superheated water fired from its mouth. Its hydrogen glands deflated, a magical-alchemical reaction exploded within the Titan. The water bubbled and the skin of the Kraken peeled back. Layer by layer burned away like acid eating at its flesh.
In their twirling embrace, the monsters created a cloud of blood and ichor, obscuring the battle.
When the chaos cleared, the Titan burst upwards, desperate for air.
A chunk of the Kraken’s mantle in its claws.
It would eat well tonight.
The titan burst from surface. A black-blue and white rocket and arrow-shaped snout. It let out a wailing roar before crashing back into the water.
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ZFSigurdson 